Storm Arwen anniversary: Power cut victim bought generator

Neil Russell said remote areas, like his village, went "to the back of the queue" to be reconnected

A man whose power was off for 11 days during Storm Arwen said he bought a generator on day three to end nights of "cold soup by candlelight".

Neil Russell, of Northumberland, was speaking a year after the bad weather and said his remote village was at the "back of the queue" to be reconnected.

The 51-year-old said he drove through heavy snow to buy a £500 generator so he could cook and heat his home.

Northern Powergrid said it was supplying more generators to homes.

More than a million UK properties were left without power after the storm which also brought severe wind, rain and snow when it hit on 26 November 2021.

Neil Russell said he drove through heavy snow to buy a second-hand generator

Mr Russell, a building surveyor from Spartylea, Allenheads, said: "I live on a hillside and my nearest neighbour is 50 metres away, and the nearest after that is 300 metres.

"My wife Lisa and I made the choice to live here in the wilds because it is remote and beautiful. We never caught Covid throughout the whole of the pandemic.

"By day three after the storm, we had had no communication from Northern Powergrid, so we realised we were at the back of the queue for reconnection. Efforts were being concentrated in more populated areas like Alnwick.

"We realised we were on our own.

"We are reasonably fit and active, but there are elderly people in our village relying on bore holes for water so when the electricity went, the pumps didn't work and they were left without water as well."

The Russells managed for three days with a fire and candles before buying a generator

Mr Russell said he arranged to buy a small second-hand petrol generator from a friend and drove more than 40 miles to Newcastle in hazardous conditions to pick it up.

Once the 2,200w generator was connected, Mr Russell was able to run his TV, phone, heating ignition circuit and gas ignition circuit, fridge and a few lights.

The small generator was able to power some lights, the heating system, phone and TV

He said: "Once we were on the generator we were OK other than having to keep it topped up with fuel and shutting it off at bed time.

"But we couldn't run bigger things like the shower or washing machine. After a few days we were getting a bit ripe so we had to travel to my parents in Low Fell to have a wash."

Northern Powergrid spokesman Jim Cardwell said it had 20 teams setting up generators in rural households

Jim Cardwell, head of policy development at Northern Powergrid, said: "We're upping the number of generators we've got, particularly the smaller sizes that we need to get to individual houses in rural, more sparsely-populated places.

"We can get the single generators out there and we've got 20 teams trained up to assist in doing that, so we've got more resources to commit during a storm the size of Storm Arwen.

"We also have helicopter patrols to make sure we're looking at the condition of overhead lines.

"Rest assured it's a key part of the work that we do to make sure we maintain the resilience of our network."

Mr Russell said many of the power lines that came down were decades old and "rotten"

Mr Russell said in fairness to the firm, he received £750 compensation within weeks and another "goodwill" payment of £700 to cover expenses such as fuel.

Many of those affected by power cuts complained that they could not get through to the power firm to get help.

Mr Cardwell said that the company had spent £2m improving its phone systems and website and had increased the number of call agents from 100 to 450.

Mr Russell said: "The biggest annoyance wasn't the power outage, it was the complete lack of information and contact.

"The other big issue for us is the condition of the infrastructure, and in my opinion the company still works on a repair-when-broken basis rather than actively carrying out preventative inspections and on-going programmed replacements.

"Some of the poles in our valley are 70 years old and in fairness some of the older poles are better than newer ones which rot more.

"Many of the poles have a 1993 plate which indicates that that was their last thorough inspection I believe."

Mr Russell believes power firms should carry out "preventative inspections"

Mr Russell said that since the storm they had had a couple of power losses, but that communication was better and they had been reconnected quickly.

"The communication is now much better with texts and emails when we may suffer outages," he said.

"More pro-active texts to give an indication of repair timescales do happen. They (Northern Powergrid) did pay compensation promptly and did not quibble at covering the cost of the generator or fuel.

"Looking on the bright side, the coal fire and candles are cosy."

Mr Russell he had chosen to live in the "wilds" and expected periodic power cuts